Talk:Episode Guide
Very nice I'm loving the look of this page so far. Once you're done, I say you should go ahead and publish it in the mainspace. Are you planning to include all versions of Robot Wars on the same page, or will you create separate ones for each? Christophee (talk) 19:11, November 30, 2012 (UTC) :It all looks good, but I'm not sure that people are going to know what #O and #S stand for. Christophee (talk) 21:55, November 30, 2012 (UTC) ::Hopefully it's a little clearer now. If there are no objections I'll move it to main. There's still info I would like to add, mainly regarding channels/timeslots etc. Presumably you'll probably want it linked to this somehow. StalwartUK (talk) 22:21, November 30, 2012 (UTC) :::Yeah, that's much better. What exactly are you planning to call this page? If you make it a subpage of Robot Wars, then shouldn't it only include the UK Series episodes? Christophee (talk) 12:50, December 1, 2012 (UTC) ::::The page still makes note of the international series, so I think it's acceptable to go with Robot Wars/Episode Guide. [[User:ToastUltimatum|'Toast']][[User talk:ToastUltimatum|'Ultimatum']] 14:18, December 1, 2012 (UTC) :::::Okay, fair enough. Stalwart, feel free to create the page in mainspace under that name. Christophee (talk) 14:56, December 1, 2012 (UTC) ::::::Regarding "those two" Series 2 episodes. Should we be really counting them? They didn't feature any actual fights and the "Making of" one is actually about Series 1 (and bits of it ended up on The First Great War video). Also there's something else, I've found a few references regarding something called "Robot Wars Revealed". Apparently it first aired on BBC Choice(!) on 22nd November 1998. From what I've been able to find it seems to be the same thing as the "Making of" episode. That date is also supported by comments on this video. StalwartUK (talk) 15:12, December 1, 2012 (UTC) :::::::I definitely think we should count them. This is a complete list of episodes, and they are most certainly episodes. [[User:ToastUltimatum|'Toast']][[User talk:ToastUltimatum|'Ultimatum']] 15:17, December 1, 2012 (UTC) ::::::::Are the 'Making of' and 'Revealed' episodes exactly the same or just similar? Is there any way of including the original channel for some of these lists? If you include the 'Revealed' episode, then I can think of three episodes which are not on the same original channel as the rest of that series (the other two are the First WC and one of the Christmas Specials - I forget which one). Christophee (talk) 15:42, December 1, 2012 (UTC) :::::::::It's quite likely that they're the same programme. It's possible that the title we know could be wrong and that Robot Wars Revealed is in fact the proper title for it. Robot Wars wasn't the only programme to get a behind the scenes type special of this sort. BBC Choice (and later BBC Three) aired ones of various other series too with the best known examples probably being EastEnders Revealed and Doctor Who Confidential. As for the channels I was going to make notes of them above the various episode lists. StalwartUK (talk) 15:56, December 1, 2012 (UTC) ::::::::::I like what you've done for the two special episodes from Series 2. May I suggest that you do the same for the First WC at the end of Series 3? That way you can move the description about it to just above that table, and you can include both the BBC Choice and BBC Two dates. Christophee (talk) 12:26, December 2, 2012 (UTC) Regarding the recent changes, it appears after doing some more research that the Making of programme and the Revealed thing are actually two seperate things. Revealed was apparently a series of programmes exclusive to BBC Choice that were about Series 2. Namely, one reference refers to Jim Struts being in an episode, a Series 2 robot. However, the Making of was about Series 1. Suddenly everything makes much more sense for some reason. StalwartUK (talk) 23:34, December 3, 2012 (UTC) :Other than a few minor tweaks and additions I'm just about ready to move it to mainspace. Before we do though there are a few things that I think need to be sorted out. What category should it be filed under and how will we link to it? :About the main navbox, we could create a new group in it that could include this page (none of the existing groups seem like a good fit). We could also include the merchandise page (which is invisible on the main page) and (when I get around to doing them) the logo and music pages. StalwartUK (talk) 12:59, December 5, 2012 (UTC) ::The category is a tough one. Maybe just put it in all the 'UK Series', 'US Series'... categories. I certainly can't think of a better one. As for the main navbox, I think you should go with your idea. We can also link to the page by replacing the 'Broadcast Dates' heading on the Robot Wars page with an 'Episode Guide' one, as that table will be on this page. Christophee (talk) 15:56, December 5, 2012 (UTC) Television ratings I have a proposal that could not only help enhance this article, but episode articles as well. Television ratings are very important for a program, especially one like Robot Wars, where I am pretty sure the fate of the original show was determined by them. In a nutshell, good ratings means a program stays on the air, bad ratings causes the show to be eventually cancelled. So that made me wonder; why not add how each episode did ratings-wise? We can use BARB, a reliable source. I admit that there is a slight problem with using BARB, as the earliest recorded ratings were from July 1998 onwards, meaning we cannot add the TV ratings for the entire Series 1. But apart from that, I think this could be very useful for determining how successful Robot Wars really was. Note that if this proposal is accepted, I would like to make a request; could you people, especially those who have 300 or more edits, leave the work to a friend of mine? He has been helping this wiki after all. SpaceManiac888 (talk) 14:00, August 15, 2016 (UTC) :For the most recent series would we also include iPlayer viewing info due to "the changing nature of peoples viewing habits" The BBC Media Centre publishes iPlayer requests data every three months http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/latestnews/2016/iplayer-perf-pack-june-may-apr so we could get the data that way (though it would be another month until that data is available, assuming that RW is one of the 20 most requested programmes).--Voyanuitoa (talk) 14:07, August 15, 2016 (UTC) ::That would be a useful addition for the 2016 Series. SpaceManiac888 (talk) 15:11, August 15, 2016 (UTC) :::Absolutely viewing figures would be great fun. Do you suggest it also be added to episode infoboxes? [[User:ToastUltimatum|'Toast']][[User talk:ToastUltimatum|'Ultimatum']] 05:43, August 16, 2016 (UTC) ::::That would be another good addition to the episode infoboxes, although I would also like to mention the ratings in the lead. There, we could compare the ratings from the previous episode, as well as determing which episode drew the highest and lowest ratings in Robot Wars history. SpaceManiac888 (talk) 08:40, August 16, 2016 (UTC) :::::Well I've added Rating to the episode infobox. I guess it can be talked about in the main summary, but only if it's a noticeable difference from the last episode. Either way, adding ratings to each episode's infobox will raise his edit count handily. [[User:ToastUltimatum|'Toast']][[User talk:ToastUltimatum|'Ultimatum']] 10:06, August 16, 2016 (UTC) ::::::One final question. My friend asked, should we include a Harvard reference to show the readers where the wiki got the TV rating figure from? SpaceManiac888 (talk) 11:12, August 17, 2016 (UTC) :::::::It wouldn't hurt, not too bothered. I'll assume you say Harvard by mistake, we don't need the wiki to be a reminder of university. [[User:ToastUltimatum|'Toast']][[User talk:ToastUltimatum|'Ultimatum']] 11:39, August 17, 2016 (UTC) ::::::::Harvard referencing is a type of referencing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parenthetical_referencing though I imagine that the current reference system the wiki has should be okay.--Voyanuitoa (talk) 12:29, August 17, 2016 (UTC) :::::::::I know, Harvard referencing is what I have to do at uni, I wasn't talking about Harvard University itself. [[User:ToastUltimatum|'Toast']][[User talk:ToastUltimatum|'Ultimatum']] 12:36, August 17, 2016 (UTC)